"Serving West and East Village, Chelsea, SoHo, NoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Lower East Side"

Volume 77, Number 9
August 01 - 07, 2007

Editorial/Op-EdNew interfaith project inspires faith in N.Y.U.A year ago, New York University announced it wasnt interested in acquiring the N.Y.U. Catholic Center property at Washington Square S. and Thompson St. One had to view that statement, though, in the context of the universitys recent building efforts on the south side of the square  Kimmel Center and new Law School building  and the firestorm of angry opposition from the community that these projects engendered.

Letters to the EditorScoopy's NotebookTalking PointManhattan traffic congestion is a historic mistakeBy Gerard Koeppel
Manhattans traffic congestion problem will never be solved by charging usage fees. As long as there are cars and trucks, gasoline and commerce, people will drive to and from and up and down Manhattan. Drivers (or their employers) will pay $8 for the privilege, just as they pay $1.50 for 60 minutes of metered parking, $3.25 or more for a gallon of gas, $115 for blocking the box and $600 for a months worth of garage parking.

ObituariesMollie Bender, 85, of Gottlieb real estate familyMollie Bender, partner with her late brother Bill Gottlieb, her husband, Irving Bender, and her son, Neil Bender, in the family real estate business, died July 1 in her West Village home at the age of 85.

Fred Russo, 40, mortgage broker at GreenPointFred B. Russo, a Village resident for 14 years, died in his home on Washington St. on July 12 at the age of 40. He was diagnosed in February with melanoma, according to his mother, Concetta.

John Maxwell of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in the New York University Catholic Centers Trinity Chapel on Tuesday, has been coming to the chapel for the last six years just to play its Delaware organ.

N.Y.U. covets the Catholic Center but in humility would build smallBy Lincoln Anderson
A year ago, when the news broke that the Catholic Archdiocese planned to demolish its Trinity Chapel at New York University, the university was quick to quash any speculation that it was interested in the prime property on the south side of Washington Square Park.

Critical Mass rally focuses on proposed filming rulesBy Jefferson Siegel
Fridays monthly Critical Mass ride attracted more than just bicyclists. A rally to criticize proposed rules for filming and photographing on the streets of New York drew several hundred people, many wielding cardboard cutouts of movie cameras and an abundance of real cameras.

Orchard St. Guss wont bite on pickle peace pactBy Audrey Tempelsman
On July 16, Andrew Leibowitz of the United Pickle empire and Patricia Fairhurst, owner of Orchard St.s Guss Pickles, met to mediate their longstanding conflict over the citys most coveted cucumbers. Both claim legal ownership of the 87-year-old Guss Pickles brand.

NEWSCorralling Chinatowns cowboy bus businessBy Sruthi Pinnamaneni
Holding fluorescent-colored signs calling for a halt to a proposed relocation of bus zones in their neighborhood, hundreds of Chinatown and Lower East Side residents poured into the M.S. 131 auditorium on the evening of Tues., July 24. Some had waited almost an hour for the start of the Community Board 3 meeting.

Wash. Sq. funds must be pulled, critics cryBy Albert Amateau
The Washington Square Park Task Force struggled over the Parks Departments redesign of the park at two public hearings, one last Thursday at City Hall and the other on Monday, and the overwhelming community consensus was a predictable No.

Critics: Garage colorful but contains too much fuelBy Lincoln Anderson
The Department of Sanitation has made some significant modifications to its plans to build a 14-story, three-district garage at Spring and Washington Sts. But community members still say the project is too big  and a terrorist threat to boot.

Antiwar leader Sheehan says its war with PelosiBy Lincoln Anderson
Two days after announcing she will run against Nancy Pelosi because the House speaker wont impeach President Bush, Cindy Sheehan was in Union Square to help kick off a new wear orange campaign to protest the Iraq war.

Restaurants last servingOn Sat., July 21, the family owners of the closed Jade Mountain restaurant on Second Ave. held an Everything Must Go sale, as little Nicholas Chan, above right, scampered about.

There goes the neighborhood!St. Brigids faithful thankful church still standingBy Albert Amateau
It was 7:30 a.m. last Friday when the really hard core of the Committee to Save St. Brigid gathered on Avenue B to commemorate the hour and day last year when a wrecking crew from the Catholic Archdiocese punched a hole in the shuttered churchs east wall and started to demolish the historic building.

VILLAGER ART & LIFESTYLEThe real-life melodrama behind Laura SmilesBy Steven Snyder
Its been a long journey from that cold night when director Jason Ruscio stood in downtown Manhattan, holding a camera trained on a burger joint, to the warm evening last Friday, when his movie,Laura Smiles, finally opened in its first New York theater.Laura Smiles, finally opened in its first New York theater.

Tuning into Radio Labs strange frequencyBy Orli Van Mourik
At Café Lafayette, a modest, French bistro in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Jad Abumrad puts down his salmon burger and begins what is for him a typical conversation.

The Wildbirds swoop into the L.E.S.By Jaya Saxena
Monday is not exactly the best night to rock out. Most people are too tired from their weekend to even go out, and if they do they are most certainly not looking forward to a Tuesday morning where their ears are ringing louder than their alarm.

Mario Fratti still plays it straightBy Jerry Tallmer
Love, sex, politics, betrayal, mothers, sons, fathers, daughters, deaths, double meanings, and surprise are never very far apart in the plays of Mario Fratti, none of which show any signs of his senior-senior citizenship.

Koch on FilmEd KochThe Camden 28 This documentary is about a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters in Camden, New Jersey, in the 1970s who broke into a government building and destroyed draft-board records.

SportsRowing, rowing Whitehall boats; Life is but a dreamBy Lucas Mann
New Yorkers enjoying the Hudson River Park on Sat., July 28, might have been surprised to see a fleet of six-person, wooden row boats flying international flags, resolutely battling the current. No, this was not a race to rediscover America, it was the International Rowing Federations annual rowing tour.

Photo by Dixie SheridanNAKED IN A FISHBOWL This improvised play is a unique theatrical event that eavesdrops on the lives of four young women in New York City. Part of the 11th Annual New York International Fringe Festival. Aug. 10-26. THE SOHO PLAYHOUSE, 15 Vandam St., bet 6th Ave. & Varick. 212-279-4488. www.FringeNYC.org. www.nakedinafishbowl.com. $15. Pictured above are Lauren Seikaly, Brenna Palughi, Lynne Rosenberg and Katharine Heller.